One paragraph gives both the flavor of the essay and raises
a question that is worth careful reflection:

“If we accept that the media will probably become more and
more market-minded, and that an imposed conscience in the form of legal
requirements or traditional publishing norms will probably have less and less
effect, what are the results we most fear? I think there are four:

• that this
will become an age of lies, idiocy, and a complete Babel of ‘truthiness,’ in
which no trusted arbiter can establish reality or facts;

• that
the media will fail to cover too much of what really matters, as they are drawn
toward the sparkle of entertainment and away from the depressing realities of
the statehouse, the African capital, the urban school system, the corporate
office when corners are being cut;

• that
the forces already pulverizing American society into component granules will
grow all the stronger, as people withdraw into their own separate information
spheres;

• and
that our very ability to think, concentrate, and decide will deteriorate, as a
media system optimized for attracting quick hits turns into a
continual-distraction machine for society as a whole, making every individual
and collective problem harder to assess and respond to.”

It seems to me that there are several reasons why Christians
should have an advantage in this area, so that as the digital revolution
unfolds, the church can increasingly become a bulwark of careful thinking and
disciplined reading. We are people of the Word and so have all the more reason
to take words—and truth—with utmost seriousness. We are already organized and
used to discussion so that learning from one another to choose and read media
sources with discernment should be possible. And we have a final authority in
the Scriptures so that we are not dependent on media pundits to spell out the
opinions we should hold.

The question, of course, at this point is simple. Will
Christians take advantage of these things or will we merely flow along with the
rest of our world, seduced by the most clever rhetoric, drawn into the
ideologies of the Left and the Right, open to adopting whatever myths are
spawned in a cynical world, and overwhelmed by the profusion of media options?